eschenba, Author at Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship - Page 3 of 11

Sophomores: Phillips Scholarship Pre-Application Now Open

Posted on November 21, 2019

The Phillips Scholars Program recognizes and rewards private college students who strive to make life better for those with unmet needs. Applicants are challenged to think creatively and become community-service leaders.

A preliminary application is used to select two finalists from Augsburg University who will then develop a full proposal to be submitted to the Minnesota Private College Council for the scholarship. This will include a 5-7 page project proposal, official transcript, and 3 letters of recommendation. Staff members of the Sabo Center will help finalists complete their applications.

Applicants must be a sophomore during the 2019-2020 school year, and commit to designing & carrying out a large-scale project serving a Minnesota community the summer after the student’s junior year (Summer 2021).

Each year, projects must fit within a theme. This year’s application theme is “Addressing the Achievement/Opportunity Gap in Minnesota.”

Scholarship recipients receive $6,000 during their junior year, a $4,000 stipend while completing a summer project, and $6,000 their senior year upon successful completion of their summer project.

Last year, 3 of the 5 Phillips Scholar recipients were Augsburg students, and many Augsburg students have received the scholarship in the past. Check out the Phillips Scholar website for more information about current and former Phillips Scholars and their projects.

Deadline for Preliminary Application: Friday, January 10, 2020, 11:59 p.m.
Augsburg finalists selected to submit full proposals will be notified by Tuesday, January 14, 2020.
Full applications will be due February 7, 2020.

Phillips Scholarship Preliminary Application

Clementine, the Campus Kitchen van, has served us well. But it is time to say goodbye.

Posted on November 6, 2019January 6, 2020

The Campus Kitchen Program has had one main source of transportation for more than 10 years, a minivan named Clementine. Our steadfast and beloved van (which was named by students) has become too worn to carry out our work, so we are in need of a new mode of transportation.

By the Numbers

This is some of what a van allows us to accomplish:

Six = the number of days each week Clementine is used to transport food, students, and staff.

100,000 = the number of meals Clementine has delivered to neighbors in need in the last 10 years.

27,996 = the number of pounds of recovered produce Clementine has hauled in one growing season from local farmers markets so it could be distributed to neighbors in Cedar-Riverside who have little access to fresh food.

Students holding meal packs behind van — Students on a meal delivery in Clementine’s younger days.

Help us Keep on Rolling

We know we’ll have to move on without Clementine, and when a van allows us to get so much done, we know we can’t go for very long without finding a replacement vehicle. Here’s how you can help:

Make an online donation.

Make a donation the old-fashioned way. Send a check to Augsburg University, Campus Kitchen Van Fund, 2211 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55454 Campus Box 10.

rusty broken down van — (This isn’t really the Campus Kitchen van, but you get the idea.)

Staff Feature: Natalie Jacobson

Posted on September 30, 2019January 25, 2023

GET TO KNOW THE SABO CENTER!

In each Staff Feature installment, we ask members of the Sabo Center staff to share what they do, along with some fun facts.

This post features Natalie Jacobson, Campus Kitchen Coordinator.

What do you do at the Sabo Center?

I coordinate Augsburg’s Campus Kitchen program, which works to make healthy food accessible in Cedar-Riverside and on Augsburg’s campus. We provide opportunities for Augsburg students to build leadership skills and connect with one another and with our surrounding community through food!

What is one social issue that is most important to you right now?

So many–it’s hard to choose! But at this moment, the horrific immigrant detention camps are top of mind.

What’s your favorite place on Augsburg’s campus?

Hands down, the Food Lab (Hagfors 108). If you haven’t cooked something in the Food Lab yet, you’re missing out! 🙂

If you could recommend one book, movie, or podcast, what would it be and why?

I love The Mortified Podcast, a storytelling series where people share embarrassing things they wrote as kids/teens. With so much heavy stuff going on in the world, sometimes I need to consume media that makes me laugh a lot. This podcast does the trick!

What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?

Lately, I’ve been enjoying getting more involved with the Twin Cities Jewish community and organizations like Jewish Community Action that are doing work for justice through a Jewish lens!

What are three words you would use to describe yourself?

Passionate, goofy, affectionate.

What’s your favorite place in the world?

My great aunt has a house in Quebec, on a big beautiful lake in the middle of the woods. Spending time at that house, surrounded by family, brings me so much inner peace and comfort.

What’s the coolest thing you’re working on right now?

I’m working with the Campus Kitchen team to explore a partnership with Brightside Produce, an organization working to make fresh produce available at corner stores in food deserts. Campus Kitchen will likely be selling fresh produce at a low cost to help support Brightside’s mission. Keep your eye out for that this fall!

Who would you most want to swap places with for a day?

My amazing (way bigger than me) little brother Alec Jacobson!

Urban Adventure is moving to Augsburg and will become Urban Investors

Posted on September 18, 2019March 6, 2020

The Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship is pleased to join with the Strommen Center for Meaningful Work and Learning to welcome to campus a new partner in 2020: Urban Investors.

Twenty-two years ago Urban Adventure was created by Peter Heegaard to provide educational experiences for emerging leaders in business and financial professions. The program seeks to make urban issues understandable and to catalyze investment and community development that moves families out of poverty, revitalizes neighborhoods, improves schools, and builds employment. Throughout its history, Urban Adventure has engaged more than 400 local leaders from financial institutions in its programming. Participants in the program engage in simulations, problem-based learning, and site visits in order to learn about the positive outcomes of investing in under-resourced communities. Emerging leaders participating in Urban Adventure are exposed to the strategies that have transformed many St. Paul and Minneapolis neighborhoods, learning strategies for connecting financial institutions with the community in order to affect positive change through investment, employment, and economic vitality.

With the move to Augsburg University next year, Urban Adventure will change its name to “Urban Investors” which better reflects the depth and significance of the experiences students have with the program.

The banks and financial professionals who have taken part in Urban Adventure over the last 22 years have remained committed to the urban core. Augsburg’s commitment to being an anchor institution in the region, and the Sabo Center’s commitment to stewarding the University’s many community-based partnerships, make it a natural home for the program in this new phase. Urban Investors will continue to be influenced by program founder Peter Heegaard, who is also the author of Heroes Among Us and More Bang for Your Buck. Mike Christenson will be the 2020 program director and has held executive positions with Allina, Minneapolis Community Technical College, the City of Minneapolis, and most recently Hennepin County, where he directed workforce programs for the region.

Please join us in welcoming Urban Investors to campus! We are excited to see what community partnerships and opportunities for students may emerge from this new connection.

City Engagement Day 2019: Connecting Students, Education, and Community

Posted on September 12, 2019

Students sit around tables listening as a woman talks. — Students learn about Trinity Lutheran Congregation from Pastor Jane Buckley-Farlee before beginning their City Engagement Day project.

For over twenty-five years, students have started off their Augsburg education with City Engagement Day. City Engagement Day is the first step on a student’s civic engagement and experiential journey at Augsburg. Along with their professor and classmates from their first year seminar (“AugSem”), students go out into the community for the afternoon to complete projects at community organizations. Each AugSem has a disciplinary focus, and each City Engagement Day site is carefully selected to pair with the discipline of the AugSem. The afternoon serves as an introduction to the communities surrounding Augsburg and the city of Minneapolis more broadly, a key learning aspect for Augsburg students in their First Year Experience. For some students, City Engagement Day is a catalyst to seek out volunteer or internship opportunities with the organizations they visited! The City Engagement Day experience is an important step in student learning as they begin to recognize and articulate their role in multiple communities, and to demonstrate agency to create positive, informed, and meaningful change in the world.

The goals of City Engagement Day have stayed consistent over its long history. The aims of the day include:

Students will learn more about the communities and organizations around Augsburg, and practice getting around the city.
Students will encounter community engagement and experiential learning as core components of an Augsburg education.
Students will build relationships with peers and faculty through shared work.
Students will connect with an organization or community that relates to the focus of their course or discipline.

With the arrival of Augsburg’s largest ever incoming class this fall, a significant number of local organizations were engaged to partner with Augsburg for City Engagement Day. While some local organizations have partnered with Augsburg for City Engagement Day from the beginning twenty-five years ago–including The Cedar Cultural Center, Mixed Blood Theater, Brian Coyle Community Center, and Seward Montessori School–a variety of new partners were engaged to participate in City Engagement Day 2019, including Hook and Ladder Theater and Lounge, the VOA High School, House of Balls Gallery, Waite House Radio station, the Midtown Greenway Coalition, 826 MSP, and Interfaith Power and Light.

Organizations who participated as partners in this year’s City Engagement Day reported on the positive impact of the students who came to their organizations. At the Hook and Ladder Theater and Lounge, music students helped clean up gardens, cleaned, painted, filled a dumpster with debris, and helped organize a storeroom. Education students moved thousands of pounds of sand into a new sandbox at Anew Dimension Childcare Center, while another, business-focused AugSem moved the entirety of the West Bank Business Association office to their new location in the Mixed Blood Theater space.

Another aspect of connecting students to the communities surrounding Augsburg was transportation for City Engagement Day. Out of this fall’s thirty-two AugSems, twenty-five were able to walk to the site of their afternoon engagement, while the remainder were able to take public transit, due in no small part to the newly accessible Auggie Pass, an all-you-can ride transit pass for Augsburg students. By walking or taking public transit, first year students began to see close-up what our community looks like and what is available in it.

Each year, Mary Laurel True, Community Engagement Director in the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship, organizes City Engagement Day sites. True began City Engagement Day (then City Service Day) early during her 30-year tenure at Augsburg, and each year coordinates the event, carefully pairing AugSem classes with organizations and projects. Noting that the AugSems are paired with sites that are relevant to their disciplinary focus, True emphasized how impactful it has been over the years that students start getting involved right away to see how their potential field of study might be living out its mission in the city in creative and profound ways.

Student reflections on their City Engagement Day experiences indicated that the day did, in fact, impact their understanding of the connection of an Augsburg education and their current and future change-making in the world. When asked about the most important thing they learned during City Engagement Day, students responded:

“The way that Augsburg connects with its communities, and how we as students can help our local community.”

“The most important thing I learned was actually how important it is to be a part of your community. This is where I will be living, these are the environments and people I will be surrounded with for the next 4 years. So it’s very important not only to care about but to contribute to your communities…”

“I learned that not only did we help this community center, but I realized that just because we are a University within a community does not mean we are separate from the community. As we continue through the years at this University, we should always recognize and help out the community we are in.”

City Engagement Day may be completed for 2019, but its impact will continue to resonate with students as they enter into the fall semester and beyond. We can’t wait to see how the Class of 2023 will continue to engage with our communities through their time at Augsburg.

Staff Feature: LaToya Taris-James

Posted on September 6, 2019February 7, 2023

GET TO KNOW THE SABO CENTER!

In each Staff Feature installment, we ask members of the Sabo Center staff to share about what they do, along with some fun facts.

This post features LaToya Taris-James, Student Leadership Programs Coordinator.

What do you do at the Sabo Center?

I help coordinate student leadership programs in the Sabo Center. Parts of my work include administrative support for Campus Kitchen, and supporting the programming for LEAD Fellows through co-creating leadership development material, providing resources, and connecting fellows to partners in the community.

What’s one social issue that is most important to you right now?

An issue that I care about deeply and that has been very present in my own experience is the imbalance of power and access to opportunity when it comes to narrative, especially in the nonprofit and education sectors. We have a collective narrative in each of the communities we are part of; however, marginalized people groups, who do not hold the same economic power as others, are rarely given the opportunity to tell their own stories. This often results in an unhealthy culture of giving where wealthy people toss money at problems they don’t understand, for people they do not know, based on stories that were not told correctly. This creates a cycle of need that is not sustainable. Much of the work that I do outside of Augsburg centers around the power of narrative and helping under-represented groups use their voice to change unhealthy narratives. Wait, did you ask me to write an entire essay on this? I will leave it at that.

What’s your favorite place on Augsburg’s campus?

The meeting room in the Religion Department area in Hagfors. Very cool natural lighting with a view of the garden outside! I’ve only been in that room once and I decided it was my favorite.

If you could recommend one book, movie, or podcast, what would it be and why?

Black Boy by Richard Wright. I became familiar with Wright’s work back in high school, and this was the first book of his that I ever read. The book was helpful to me in my formative teenage years, helping me develop thoughts around what I was experiencing as a black kid navigating different spaces. Reading about Wright’s experiences really validated my own, as I had not been introduced to a lot of literature like that at the time. Reading this book inspired me me to dive into the world of black literature and enriched my life and work in deep ways.

What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?

Ride my bike! And read.

What are three words you would use to describe yourself?

Thoughtful. Sensitive. Idealistic.

What’s your favorite place in the world?

Any room where my siblings are gathering. Also North Minneapolis 🙂

What’s the coolest thing you are working on right now?

Right now I am working to further conceptualize a storytelling/social impact initiative that I started a few years ago.

Name one spot in the Twin Cities that you would consider a “must-see”?

The Skydeck at the Guthrie Theater.

Who would you most likely swap places with for a day?

Willy Wonka.

Have any last facts/favorite quotes/advice/etc. that you would like to share?

“Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”–African Proverb

Fall 2019 Opportunities with the Sabo Center

Posted on September 2, 2019October 23, 2019

Join the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship this fall for a wealth of opportunities to learn and connect!

The Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship is Augsburg University’s civic and community engagement center. We connect students, faculty, staff, and community members in the everyday work of learning together to address public issues, make change, and build democracy.

Curious to learn more about what the Sabo Center does? Check out our 2018-2019 Year In Review for highlights from the past school year, and follow us on Facebook! Opportunities to connect to the Sabo Center in the coming months include:

Sabo Center Open House

September 11, 3;30-5p, Sabo Center (LL Anderson Residence Hall)

Drop in for food and connection! Come learn about the Sabo Center, meet our staff, and eat some delicious snacks. Students, faculty, staff: ALL are welcome!

Sabo Snapshot #1 (bring your lunch!)

September 16, 12-1p, Marshall Room

Faculty and staff, join the Sabo Center for a brown bag lunch while we present a “snapshot” of our work and how you can connect it with your classes, department, or program.

Constitution Day Dialogue: Census 2020

September 17, 9:45-11a, OGC 113

Join us for a dialogue on the 2020 Census and the many interconnected issues that touch this important topic.

Community Opportunity Fair

September 19, 11a-1p, Christensen Center

Looking to get connected to the wider community? Come to the Community Opportunity Fair for a chance to meet with local organizations seeking to connect with students.

Sabo Snapshot #2 (bring your lunch!)

September 24, 11:30a-12:30p, Riverside Room

Faculty and staff, join the Sabo Center for a brown bag lunch while we present a “snapshot” of our work and how you can connect it with your classes, department, or program.

Community Organizing 101

October 16, 3:10-4:40p, OGC 100

Participants in this workshop will gain an understanding of relational power, the difference between public and private relationships, and how self-interest motivates us to act.

One-to-One Relational Meetings Training

October 31, 3;40-5p, Marshall Room

If you want to create change, few things are more important as one-to-one relational meetings. Participants in this workshop will learn and practice one-to-one relationship building for organizing and public work.

Equity & Justice in Environmental Action

November 11, 4:30-6:30p, Room TBD

Join us for a storytelling event around how environmental justice shows up in our lives and on campus. Together we will collectively envision Augsburg’s commitment to environmental action beyond 2019.

Power Mapping

November 19, 3:40-5p, Lindell 301

People interested in promoting positive social change–through public work, civic action, advocacy, and other vehicles–need to be aware of who else cares about their cause, and the political and social power structures in play. Power mapping gives participants a way to think about different kinds of power, and a set of tools to access the power needed to make things happen.

Staff Feature: Elaine Eschenbacher

Posted on August 22, 2019October 23, 2019

GET TO KNOW THE SABO CENTER!

In each Staff Feature installment, we ask members of the Sabo Center staff to share about what they do, along with some fun facts.

This post features Elaine Eschenbacher, Director of the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship.

What do you do at the Sabo Center?

As Director of the Sabo Center, I design and oversee programs and opportunities that engage a wide diversity of people in public work, community engagement, and civic agency development. No two days are alike.

What’s one social issue that is most important to you right now?

The 2020 Census. It’s nerdy, yes, but it determines political representation for the next decade and provides data that shapes how policymakers and business leaders will invest public and private resources in communities. Watch the Sabo Center calendar for upcoming events related to the Census.

What’s your favorite place on Augsburg’s campus?

Anywhere with a good view of the Catalpa tree on the corner of 22nd and 7th, especially in Spring, when it’s in bloom.

If you could recommend one book, movie, or podcast, what would it be and why?

I love the Song Exploder Podcast, in which musicians take apart their songs and tell how they were written. It’s a great window into the creative process and shows how varied and individual creative work can be.

Name one spot in the Twin Cities that you would consider a “must-see”?

The Mississippi River gorge from a boat on the river. Many of us cross bridges above the river often, but there is nothing like seeing Minneapolis or St. Paul from the river.

Have any last facts/favorite quotes/advice/etc. that you would like to share?

I believe that we humans need to work, it is essential to our happiness. One of the books I read this summer is Sarah Smarsh’s Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest County on Earth, which I recommend. She wrote the following passage about work that beautifully captures this idea and its inherent tensions: “Grandpa Arnie loved working the land, not for the price of wheat per bushel but because smelling damp earth at sunrise felt like a holy experience…Work can be a true communion with resources, materials, other people. I have no issue with work. Its relationship to the economy—whose work is assigned what value—is where the trouble comes in.”

Staff Feature: Harry Boyte

Posted on August 20, 2019February 8, 2023

Get to know the Sabo Center!

In each Staff Feature installment, we ask members of the Sabo Center staff to share about what they do, along with some fun facts.

This post features Harry Boyte, Senior Scholar of Public Work Philosophy.

(Pictured above, left: Harry Boyte. Pictured above, right: So Fujieda and Mitsura Fukuhera, staff at Rikkyou University in Japan, showing how they are changing service learning courses into public work and Public Achievement-style courses in the service learning center).

What do you do with the Sabo Center?

I have seen my work for many years as about theorizing about people-centered democracy, a concept that I learned and experienced in the civil rights (freedom) movement. I develop concepts and practices that can translate democratic revitalization for today.

What’s one social issue that is most important to you right now?

Citizenship education, with a political approach.

What’s your favorite place on Augsburg’s campus?

The park (Murphy Square)

If you could recommend one book movie, or podcast, what would it be and why?

I’d recommend two books that give a flavor or the people-centered politics that we’ve largely lost today, and needed among young activists: Freedom’s Teacher: the Life of Septima Clark by Katherine Cherron (the best account of Clark, architect of the citizenship schools, whom King called “the mother of the movement”); and Reveille for Radicals by Saul Alinsky, straight out of the culture, spirit, and politics of the popular movemen tof the late 1930s–and a radical contrast, in crucial ways, with his much more pessimistic and cynical Rules for Radicals, the book most people have read.

What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?

Walking

What are three words you would use to describe yourself?

Public intellectual, populist

What’s your favorite place in the world?

Right at the moment, Japan.

What’s the coolest thing you are working on right now?

Creating platforms for an international movement on “Civic Studies,” or the theory and practice of people-centered democracy.

Name one spot in the Twin Cities that you would consider a “must-see”?

Speedy Market on Como.

Who would you most likely swap places with for a day?

Chief policy adviser for Pete Buttiegieg (his campaign could soar if he deepened his democracy theme to include Obama’s often repeated insight that real change in America comes to Washington not from Washington). “We the people” is the foundation of democracy and politics; this is what I’m currently talking about with students in Japan, giving a couple of lectures. You can view the PowerPoint for one of my lectures via this link.

Have any last facts/favorite quotes/advice/etc. that you would like to share?

Japan, like the U.S., has some amazing philosophy and traditions of public work-related politics and creation. See, for instance, the Japanese Folk Craft Museum.

2018-2019 Year in Review

Posted on August 19, 2019June 10, 2024

The Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship had a whirlwind 2018-2019 school year. From workshops and lectures to community-based collaboration, campus-wide initiatives, and hosting a national conference, in addition to our day-to-day programs like LEAD Fellows, Campus Kitchen, and Public Achievement, this past year was full to the brim. We are thankful for all of our partners and collaborators in this ever-changing and exciting work. As we look ahead to the new school year, we are proud to share some highlights from 2018-2019:

Democracy Augsburg:

During the fall of 2018, the Sabo Center hosted 18(!) workshops and teach-ins on topics ranging from community organizing basics to the opioid epidemic, democracy in South Africa, citizenship and community agency, and more. Sabo Center staff invited candidates from across the political spectrum to campus for tabling and outreach prior to the 2018 midterm elections, and significantly increased our center’s visibility with students, staff, and faculty.

Student Employment Pilot:

Led by Sabo Center Director Elaine Eschenbacher, the Sabo Center initiated a student employment pilot program that worked closely with supervisors and students to make on-campus student employment more meaningful and useful, both for departments employing student workers and for students in their own career preparation. Twenty students and their supervisors went through orientation, training, and structured reflection throughout the course of the school year, and a report on the results of the program are forthcoming.

Environmental Stewardship:

The intern team of three undergraduate students, one graduate student, and a MN GreenCorps member hosted several events throughout the school year exploring the intersections of equity and sustainability, including a “Sip-Sustain-Stories” discussion series and a “Sustainability is No Joke” storytelling event facilitated by RFTP. In collaboration with Campus Kitchen, students began work to set up a campus “Share Shop”–a space created by and for students to reduce consumption, mitigate student costs by providing access to things like tools, and creating a community space where students can take part in informal learning around sustainable practices and skills sharing. The Share Shop and Campus Cupboard (student-run food shelf) are excited to co-locate in the basement of the Old Science building in the fall of 2019.

Campus Kitchen:

Campus Kitchen saw the exciting addition of two new staff members, LaToya Taris-James and Natalie Jacobson. The Campus Kitchen student leadership team deepened the Campus Kitchen partnership with the Brian Coyle Community Center youth program, beginning weekly cooking sessions in the Augsburg Food Lab and in the Brian Coyle kitchen. Another highlight of the year was a garden party event featuring local food activist La Donna Redmond and storytelling facilitated by Mixed Blood Theater.

Place-Based Justice Network Summer Institute:

The Sabo Center was thrilled to host our colleagues in the Place-Based Justice Network for the network’s annual conference. Read more about the PBJN Summer Institute it the blog featuring highlights of the conference.

Undoing White Body Supremacy Pilot Project:

In partnership with Augsburg’s Equity and Inclusion Initiatives, staff members at the Sabo Center are leading a pilot cohort of white faculty and staff learning to undo the ways white supremacy shows up in our bodies, not just in our minds. Selected applicants will meet and learn together throughout the 2019-2020 academic year. This is body-based racial justice work, informed by Somatic Experiencing® and Interpersonal Neurobiology. You can read more about this exciting project on the Sabo Center Blog.

LEAD Fellows:

The 2018-2019 LEAD Fellows cohort had innovative programming, including a session about radical self-care, a vocation panel of recent graduates, and leadership styles exercises, including a town hall meeting simulation. New community partners hosting LEAD Fellows this year included OutFront MN and Inquilinxs Unidxs. And, best of all, we welcomed LaToya Taris-James, an amazing new staff member who brings a wealth of experience in youth and leadership development to supporting both the LEAD Fellows program and Campus Kitchen!

Interfaith @ Cedar Commons:

Once a month, Interfaith Scholars and community members meet together for food and interfaith conversations on a variety of topics. Topics for 2018-2019 included Wellness and Faith, Intersection of Culture and Religion, Religion as a Tool for Oppression and Liberation, and Interfaith Perspectives Post-Election.

Community-Based Learning:

Director of Community Engagement Mary Laurel True collaborates with faculty across the University to connect their classes to community organizations and projects. Some highlights from 2018-2019 included co-hosting a national conference on Cuba with faculty in the Spanish department, and bringing Spanish classes to the Mexican consulate in St. Paul to learn about their work with immigration and new immigrant communities in Minnesota. In collaboration with Religion department professors, students completed 12 visits to diverse places of worship (mosques, churches, synagogues, and temples), connecting their visits with study of interfaith topics.